MARGARET LISS:
We’re continuing our look at Dave Sim’s 21st notebook used during the creation of Cerebus #164 to 187. We’ll be looking at this notebook, which there were 260 out of 300 pages scanned, until we’ve seen every single page of it. Well, the pages scanned. If you want to see all of the notebook #21 posts to date, just use the Notebook 21 tag.
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Last week it was a page each for Astoria’s Kevillist Origins and Cirin’s New Matriarchy. Two pages of just text. Lots of that in this notebook. But this week? We’re changing it up. We’re finally done with Cerebus #165 and onto Cerebus #166:
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| Notebook #21, page 38 |
There are text pieces from Astoria and Cirin in the issue: one each from Kevillist Origins and New Matriarchy. The list shows the page number(s) circled and what was to be on those pages. And they’re pretty close to the finished issue. The quote below the list is a misremembrance of a poem from A.E. Housman’s book of poems entitled A Shropshire Lad. Under the quote is a list which includes references to several key DC comics, Action #1 and Detective #27 and a couple of references that I can’t link together. Anyone?
The next page of the notebook has the issue box number for Cerebus #167 and what appears to be some unused dialogue from an unknown fraction in the Cirinists who think Cirin is possibly dead, don’t want to serve under General Greer, and think Astoria is Cirin’s successor. They debate executing Astoria or bringing her to the Regency.
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| Notebook #21, page 39 |
The next page of the notebook has a sketch of Cerebus and Jaka. Doesn’t look that familiar. . .
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| Notebook #21, page 40 |
The next page continues the Jaka and Cerebus sketches, with an issue box number again for Cerebus #167. . .But it these sketches, that dialogue, doesn’t appear in #167.
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| Notebook #21, page 41 |
The closest I can find is the double page spread in Cerebus #166 pages 8 & 9, or if you’re following along in the phonebook, Women, it is pages 74 & 75:
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| Cerebus #166, double page spread |
Though as you can see between the notebook page and the double page spread, the dialogue and the rest of the sketches weren’t used. Not that I could find at least. Anyone?
2 comments:
So my immediate thought on reading the first page was, "Who is JP?"
Although the first one looks more like "J" followed by a Paragraph Symbol, the second one is clearly JP. Who with the initials "JP" decided to run for President in Sprint 1938 (this would be in the middle of FDR's second term) and was "finished" by spring 1939 (which seems somehow tied, not only to the first issues of Superman and Batman, but with Hitler marching into Prague).
Hitler did take over the rest of Czechoslovakia (he had grabbed anoter part earlier) and issue a proclamation from Prague Castle announcing the "German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" on March 15, 1939, and that was indeed a month before the first appearance of Batman (cover date May 1939 but Mike's Amazing World of Comics website estimates the on sale date to be April 18 of that year).
But what about Superman? Whose rising fortune was Dave trying to tie to his first appearance, and how did Hitler taking over Czechoslovia doom it?
I tried and tried and tried but could not find any reasonable answer, until I realized that "JP" was not the man's first and last initial, and there was a famous "JP" at the time who was the father of a man Dave is known to be (or at least to have been at the time he was making Cerebus) obsessed with.
Joseph P. Kennedy, JFK's dad.
On March 8, 1938, FDR appointed Kennedy Sr. (which is how I always think of him) ambassador of the United States of America to the Court of St James's, which is the official title given to the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain.
Interestingly enough, JPK's Wikipedia entry says outright that he apparently at the time believed he could become the next President:
"In 1938, Roosevelt appointed Kennedy as the United States ambassador to the Court of St James's (United Kingdom). Kennedy hoped to succeed Roosevelt in the White House, telling a British reporter in late 1939 that he was confident that Roosevelt would "fall" in 1940 (that year's presidential election).
Action #1, with a cover date of June 1938, went on sale May 3, so shortly after the elder Kennedy's appointment.
What do these things have to do with each other? If I knew that, I could probably figure out the Strange Death of Alex Raymond.
How come he was "finished" by Batman? Well, he was a fan of appeasement. Wikipedia again:
"Kennedy rejected the belief of Winston Churchill that any compromise with Nazi Germany was impossible. Instead, he supported Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. Throughout 1938, while the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany intensified, Kennedy attempted to arrange a meeting with Adolf Hitler."
Most people saw the outright invasion of Czechoslovakia as being the end of the notion of appeasement - even Chamberlain gave up on the idea at that point. But really, I'm not sure Kennedy was doomed politically in the U.S. until he ran from London when the bombing started.
"Kennedy and his family retreated to the countryside during the bombings of London by German aircraft in World War II. In so doing, he damaged his reputation with the British.[73] This move prompted Randolph Churchill to say, 'I thought my daffodils were yellow until I met Joe Kennedy.'"
Ouch
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